Clay, water, a potter’s wheel - and a technique almost unchanged for thousands of years.

Come to the Ashmolean on Saturday 24 July 2010 and meet the craftsman CORNEL SITAR, a true master of ancient Romanian traditional pottery skills. Watch him create pots from scratch, using the same materials used by his ancestors.

The pottery demonstrations are free for all, drop-in sessions starting at 11 am, 12.30 pm, and 2.30 pm. Children are most welcome.

See the exhibition THE LOST WORLD OF OLD EUROPE (ticketed exhibition, details below), and then under the master’s guidance, try your hand at creating your very own traditional clay pot.

CORNEL SITAR is a traditional craftsman from the Baia Mare region in north-western Romania. He learned his trade from his parents, having first come into contact with the potter’s wheel in 1962, at the age of 13. From 1978, Cornel Sitar began working in the workshop inherited from his father. Pottery and ceramics became not only a way of preserving an ancient skill, but also a business, the entire Sitar family being involved in the workshop.

Today, Cornel Sitar produces 12,000 pieces every year, in about 160 shapes and sizes. The traditional ceramics from his workshop are specific to the Baia Mare, Baia Sprie and Targu Lapus areas, and comprise pots, plates, bowls, jugs and jars, among other forms.

With major loans from Romania, Bulgaria and Moldova, ‘The Lost World of Old Europe’ presents more than 250 artefacts recovered by archaeologists from the settlements and cemeteries of ‘Old Europe’. This remarkable exhibition of gold, pottery and archaeological finds from the prehistoric civilisation of the Danube Valley, in southeast Europe, is presented in Britain for the first time.

Highlights of the exhibition include the ‘Thinker’ and Female Figurine from Cernavoda, as well as many ceramic and metallurgical pieces from the Cucuteni culture in Romania.

The exhibition has been organised by the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University (ISAW) in collaboration with the National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest, and with the participation of the Varna Regional Museum of History, Bulgaria and the National Museum of Archaeology and History of Moldova, Chisinau; and has been made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation.